


Q T (pies)

by timtom



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: Cute awkwardness, Gen, I Tried, I didn't really know what Q did specifically, In which (also) deep discussions, In which espionage, One Shot, Spies & Secret Agents, about espionage, about not knowing how to feel, i think, post - Silva, so if it sounds really stupid forgive me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 11:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timtom/pseuds/timtom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Q is assigned an assistant that he finds fascinating - but no, not in that way. She was fascinating though, enough to keep him wondering about her until one day he speaks up about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Q T (pies)

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't put pies in there, but oh hell that would've been one hell of a pun.

Q was puzzled. He didn’t like this feeling – this feeling of not knowing; it felt empty and painful, like something was gnawing at him from inside. It was like he was a balloon and he was filled with the wrong air; an element with the wrong amount of buoyancy, the wrong amount of electrons compared to neutrons and protons. He hadn’t felt this lost since he was in school. He had been nine then, and his seventh grade teacher told him off for logging onto a teacher’s account instead of the student ones they were given. He hadn’t understood what the big deal was, and all the trouble he got into only confused him even more. He had only figured out the mediocre password and surpassed two firewalls was all – what was everyone fussing about?

He was ten when the MI9 took him in – everything made sense from then on. The computer codes that challenged him – not puzzle him, but simply stimulate him – comforted him, more than any mother or friend ever could. The Q Branch became more like a home and a sense of belonging than any place he slept in or were obliged to call a ‘home’. So when he and 007 had completed their mission concerning Silva, he was assigned an assistant as a sort of reward. People really didn’t understand what he liked, he had found out.

Auburn hair; early twenties; early ivy-leagues graduate; born in Dublin but raised in London; spent three years understudying with Steven Hawking and received an invitation to study with Kim Ung Yong as a scholarship live-in university student but had turned down the offer to work with him. With them, actually; the Q Branch didn’t accept just _anyone_ into their workforce. It seemed too much of a waste – even Q could see her potential as a field agent; she had the brains, a history of martial arts since she was young, and the looks to seal the deal. If Q could see the potential the woman had, why didn’t MI9?

That was what puzzled him; troubled him; kept him staring at her as they worked – sometime she would catch him, sometimes she wouldn’t and Q would will hours of his valuable work time away trying to figure out what she was doing here, working for him.

People had taken to saying their names in a specific order – ‘ _T, Q.’_ the last time the _QT_ mistake had been made M had been very amused but sternly unimpressed.

“The paperwork on the Boston remote access hack has come in, Q.” T said, putting one of the files on Q’s desk. “Also M wanted to speak to you tonight, after the shift, and the director for the UIO asked to arrange a meeting with you to discuss firewall accessibilities and extensions.” The sticky note was placed on the file. “Lastly here are the files you asked for privately.” She put the red file over the top, and Q sipped his tea and put his mug on the files, and smiled, bumping up his glasses and the glare from the light overhead bending and prickling his retinas.

“Thank you, T.” He said, and looked back at his computer. This was her cue to leave – they had put down this unspoken rule of never saying more than was needed.

But “T.” Q blurted out, before she had reached the door. He didn’t know why – that was actually a lie, he knew _exactly_ why. But he didn’t know why he had needed to act upon it. T turned, smiled expectantly, her cherry red lips stretching into an admirable line. Q’s mouth opened, shut, but no words came out.

“Uh, tea.” He finally responded, raising his mug. “I need more tea.”

T seemed slightly amused and confused, but obediently took his mug and went back to fill it with more Earl Grey. Q sighed and shook his head, muttering _pathetic_. T came back, placed the mug back to where it was on the files, and stood with her hands together in front of her.

“Was there anything else you needed?”She asked, one of her eyebrows slightly raised and the edge of her red, red lips curled.

“Um – yes, actually. Do you mind just shutting the door?” Q said, his tongue feeling heavy for some reason. T shut it, the click sounding refreshing and crisp. She resumed her position, looking on Q. He cleared his throat and readjusted his glasses. “T, why uh, why are you working here?”

Q’s brow furrowed slightly, but the smile didn’t disappear from her lip. “Working with MI9 is a privilege, not many people get that privilege.” Then, her smile widened a bit, and she leant in. “Plus it’s a pretty good pay.” Q couldn’t help but half-smile back.

“No – well, I mean. Why _here_? In the Q branch, _under_ me?” He pulled a file from his cabinet and opened it, pulling out papers. “You’re perfectly capable of working alongside me, or alongside one of the other departments, in fact – you’ve surpassed the bar for the J branch, and that is a pretty spectacular branch to be in.” Q’s voice lowered almost playfully. “They actually have cake for people’s birthdays.” The paper he had in his hand was an evaluation of T before she was enlisted into the Q branch, with some of her skills set and test results. T chuckled slightly, her nose crinkling and her eyes gazing down.

“I don’t know, really.”

“I mean, even as a field agent. You’re almost as eligible as Bond before the whole hiatus thing, and he was the top of the pick, you know that.” Q kept going; now that he was on a roll even a speeding train wasn’t going to stop him. “It’s been bothering me for a while, and I just need to know why you’re working here, and not out there, being something better.”

T glanced at him, her mouth a slightly curved line. “Can I ask, why do you work as Quartermaster?”

Q almost shrugged, but he just looked between T’s eyes and the space next to her head, and tried not to sound like he was trying to sound stupid. “Because that’s my job.”

“That’s just it, though. That’s your job. You could’ve done anything else, you could’ve become so much better – you could’ve become a professional pianist –“At this Q’s eyebrows raised significantly. “– yes I read your file, and yet you’re sitting here, working as a Quartermaster in MI9. You _know_ you can do a lot better, and yet you don’t. I’m working here, under you in the Q branch because I saw an opportunity I liked the look of and I took it, even if I don’t know the odds of the outcome. I’m taking a chance on being your secretary because I have the right skill set, I like what the Q branch had to offer. I like it, and so I took a chance. Life’s too short to be worrying about why you aren’t doing the best you can every moment. Don’t worry about what I _can_ be, Q; worry with what I am now, and whether or not I’m enjoying it.”

“And are you?” Was all Q could say. T smiled.

“Very much so, Quartermaster.”


End file.
